EmptyCrate blogs

Creating a Panorama with Hugin

jason — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:52:03 +0000

This topic has been covered many times before on other websites, but I thought I would give it a shot here too.

With the latest version of Hugin creating a panorama is almost stupid simple. First, you choose the selection of images that you want to stitch together. Here is the list that I chose:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 7

Part 6

Part 5

Part 4

A Commodore Notebook?

jason — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:09:47 +0000

Intro
I recently came across this article about using the Commodore 64 (the most popular model of computer ever produced) in education and the follow up article that suggests the possibility of a Commodore notebook.

Mexican Fajita Style Chicken Dish

jason — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:37:05 +0000

And now for something completely different...

A friend requested this recipe after staying with us for a night, so I thought I would put it up here. Disclaimer: I never cook to a recipe, so this is slightly different each time I make it. See the list of options at the bottom to see different variations I have made.

Ingredients

2-3 Chicken Breasts Cut into approx 2"x1/4"x1" pieces
2 Jalapeno Peppers (Chopped Small)
1 Anaheim Pepper (Chopped Small)
1 Medium White Onion (Chopped Large Pieces)

Why is ++i faster than i++ in C++?

jason — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:15:59 +0000

I've heard this question come up a few times in C++ programming circles, "Why is ++i faster/better than i++?"

The short answer is: i++ has to make a copy of the object and ++i does not.

The long answer involves some code examples.

int i = 1;
int j = i++; // j is equal to 1, because i is incremented after the value is returned, 
              // which means a copy was made of the old value
int k = ++i; // k is equal to 3, because i is incremented, then returned. No copy is needed

Or a more robust example of the operator overloads:

Do You Know What ++i And i++ Really Do?

jason — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:44:52 +0000

An interviewer who thinks he is being clever might present you with a code sample like the following and ask you what the output would be:

//C
#include <stdio.h>
 
void dosomething(int i, int j, int k, int l)
{
  printf("%d, %d, %d, %d\n", i,j,k,l);
}
 
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  int i =1;
  dosomething(i++, ++i, i++, ++i);
 
  i = 1;
  printf("%d\n", i++ + ++i + i++ + ++i);
 
  i = 1;
  printf("%d\n", (i++) + (++i) + (i++) + (++i));
}

C++ Loop Optimization: Part 3: Dynamic List Generation

jason — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:25:41 +0000

I felt like this topic deserved one more article. (See part 1 and part 2 for the background.)

The question was posed, "what if you make the list of integers dynamically generated?"

So, I came up with this little generator iterator adaptor. It allows you to take any generator function and treat it like a forward iterator:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
 
template<typename Gen, typename Val, int Size>
class generator_itr
{
  private:
    Gen m_g;
    Val m_cur;
    int m_iteration;
 
  public:

Pinheads Is Now an Award Winning Game

jason — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:16:05 +0000

I thought I would take a moment to mention that Pinheads: Everything You Need is now an award winning game. Pinheads was the first game created with the EmptyCrate Game Engine.

Pinheads Screenshot

C++ Loop Optimization: Part 2

jason — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:57:33 +0000

After the first article on loop optimization my cousin pointed out to me that in some cases, tail recursion can actually be faster then loops in C with the help of tail recursion elimination. It took several tries to come up with a version that the compiler was able to optimize. I knew I got the version correct when the application stopped segfaulting (I believe it was running out of stack space).

EmptyCreate Game Engine Release 4

jason — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:54:56 +0000

The latest release of the EmptyCrate Game Engine was made last night. Changes include:

New Iconed pointers which use spacebar to toggle
Black background and tweaked modal dialogs settings
Moved inventory to left side to make it fit on an average screen better
Add mouse-over for item names
Disabled object glow effect

As always, check out game.emptycrate.com for examples.

C++ Loop Optimization

jason — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:30:44 +0000

I recently had a friend point out to me that your typical loop seen in every day code has minor inefficiencies in it which can add up to a good amount of time being wasted. I agreed with him, so I set out to write an article on how to optimize your C++ loops.

The results of the research for this article surprised me. I'll first cover the optimization techniques: